November Reign (Northarbor Coven #3)

10. Confessions

Confessions

Thyme

“Come on, let’s sit somewhere more comfortable. Dunno about you, but I’m wired.”

Oak took off the glasses and hat from his hot cop costume, placing them on the kitchen counter. He let down his hair, then ran his fingers through the glossy dark strands. He gave a contented noise, picked up his drink and the almost full bottle, and walked away, encouraging me to follow.

Unable to resist spending more time with Oak, I trailed behind him to the comfortable seating nook in the corner of the kitchen. It was a great spot during the day because it overlooked the well-maintained gardens where I was growing most of our potion ingredients.

Soft overstuffed cushions lined benches with a low table, perfect for resting books, or a steaming cup of tea beside them. Bookshelves lined one wall, mostly filled with cookery and potion books.

In my time in the mansion, I’d snuck off to this place so many times. It was my little haven. My lips quirked. Oak had found it too. I wasn’t aware that anyone other than me spent much time in the kitchen. None of them were really into cooking. On the nights I had off from that duty, the rest of my housemates would either order in or create something simple. When they did cook, it took a few of them to clean up after.

I preferred it when they left me alone to work, rather than tripping over them. They were all so big! They took up too much space even in this generous kitchen-dining area.

“You know all the best spots in the house,” Oak said with the briefest hint of a smile as I pulled out a blanket from the box under the bench.

“Want one? There’s another, or I can put the heat on?”

“I’m fine, but I’m not wearing a sheet.”

At the reminder of my flimsy costume, I felt my face heat. I yanked off the halo and blond wig, laying them neatly down on the coffee table.

“Better,” Oak said, almost without thinking. His gaze ran over me like a touch, before wandering to the dark night outside the windows.

We each sipped at our drinks, thoughts miles away. I couldn’t help but wonder if we’d handled everything the right way. Barr didn’t deserve the blame for the others vanishing. They’d been thoughtless, doing that to him. They had to know he would shoulder the ire of the mates. Demons weren’t exactly the most logical when it came to their loved ones.

Did the demons not realize their love was suffocating the young men they were partnered with? Damon and Parker had spent much of their lives fending for themselves. Even Cody, who had some privilege from being part of the coven, had still learned to go it alone since his family had long abandoned him.

Were me and Oak any better? We’d kept them stuck in the mansion for the most part. Sure, we’d been trying to teach them how to fight witches. Damon’s magical ability was stronger than it had been, but had we smothered them instead of treating them like the warriors they were?

Damon and Parker were literally killers. They did it for money usually, and only people who deserved it, but they were no stranger to the darker side of life. Cody was half demon. He was more powerful for it, yet I kept treating him like he was the young, barely powered witch I’d first met years ago.

“Did we do the right thing?” I whispered into the quiet. The hum of the appliances was the only background noise. I liked the silence.

“I’m not even sure what the right thing is anymore. We couldn’t hide it from Mori, Gregoris, or Toth. We had to tell them.”

“Did we? ”

Oak let the question hang in the air for a while. “We did. Imagine being Toth and someone hid the fact that Cody took off from somewhere he thought was safe and went to the one place they should be avoiding without proper backup. He would be livid at everyone involved in hiding it. What trust he had in us would be gone forever.”

“True.”

“You’ve also got to wonder what could have happened if Barr hadn’t come straight for us? It’s not hyperbole to say they could have died.”

He took a long drink of his bourbon, finishing the glass. Grasping the bottle, he inclined it my way to ask if I wanted a top up. Fuck it, I needed to get drunk. I felt too many things for being sober. I nodded. He poured a generous amount into my nearly empty glass before refilling his.

“There were witches who support Basil in that club. Half an hour longer and Basil could have been there himself. None of them are ready to take Basil on in a magical fight.”

“I know. I just wish there was a way we could have gotten them all back without creating drama. Mori was pissed and I’ve never really seen him that way. I can’t imagine Toth’s face right now. Honestly, I’m scared to see him angry! ”

A huffed laugh escaped Oak. “You just know Gregoris is the one to watch out for. The demon has managed Mori for decades. He’s got endless patience, except when it comes to Parker.”

I chuckled. “Right? They do forget their mates aren’t weak, though. We’ve forgotten it.” My thoughts circled back to earlier, when I was wondering if we were just as bad as their mates, making them long for some freedom.

“Is it partly our fault they did this?” The bourbon was going to my head if every thought was escaping.

“Are they adults or children?” Oak fired back. His dark eyes flashed with anger. “They could have just asked. We would have worked something out.”

“Would we?”

Oak’s eyes landed on me. “Mori would do literally anything for Damon. He would have bought out a club and filled it with security if necessary. There’s nothing to say they couldn’t have partied it up in the demon realm. Damon just wanted a danger fix.”

“You’re right.”

We lapsed into silence for a while until Oak laughed.

“He dressed up as Basil! Can you believe his gall?”

Just picturing Damon’s costume had me joining in on the laughter. Hopefully, Basil got to see it.

A couple of hours later, we had demolished half the liquor cabinet. Glasses and empty bottles littered the small table, with the excess spilling onto the floor. Not the only spill, either. I was pretty sure there was a puddle of what I hoped was whisky on the tile. Either way, I was not cleaning that up.

It was safe to say we were both pretty wasted.

“Gah!” Oak tossed his phone aside.

“Damon still texting?” I said, maybe slurred. Who knows? I wasn’t even sure Oak was listening.

“Not anymore. Out of battery.”

My little brother had shared his feelings and then some apologies later, likely helped by Mori. Didn’t make it right.

Oak’s head thumped back against the shelf behind him, exposing the long line of his throat and prominent Adam’s apple. I wanted to kiss, lick, and bite it.

Before I knew what I was doing, I was getting off my seat. I slapped some sense into myself and sat my butt back down again. Oak didn’t notice, thankfully, in a world of his own .

He opened his eyes. They fixed on me, examining me, making me feel truly seen for the first time in a long time. I liked the way I felt under his gaze. Desired.

“You’re so gorgeous, Thyme.” He let out a long, heartfelt sigh. “I wish… I wish I met you first. Then I could look at you without seeing him.”

Him. He meant Basil, right? Why did he wish that? Was he always picturing Basil when I was in front of him?

“I wish… I could purge him. Then it would just be you.”

Purge?

My sluggish brain finally put it all together. Basil. Oak had known Basil first. He looked at me like he wanted me, but Basil came into his head then, because he’d seen Basil that way once, right?

“Were… were you and Basil a thing?” I finally blurted, both sick with anxiety and excited to have a piece of the puzzle that made up Oak.

He snorted. “A thing? No, I was his casual fuck. His dirty secret. His lover undercover. Until I wasn’t.” Oak’s voice was laced with so much bitterness and pain.

At some point, Oak had loved Basil. Maybe he still did under all the hurt he felt.

I bit back bile and too much alcohol .

Tension rose between us. The weight of the heavy secret I now held and Oak’s worry over what I’d do with it.

“What happened?” I tried to keep any judgment out of my voice.

For a while I thought he wasn’t going to respond, either too drunk or too ashamed to tell me.

“The stuff with the shifters, the potions. I found out when the council did.” Bleary eyes met mine. “You know I love shifters. What he was doing was inexcusable.”

Basil got caught selling potions to shifters at extortionate rates. Far over and above what was reasonable to charge them. Most of the time, the shifter council paid for these potions or any magical assistance their shifters required, so he hadn’t needed to get them to pay in the first place, let alone through the nose. One of these shifters had been form locked, stuck in their animal form, as a punishment for “crimes” their Alpha had decided they had committed.

Scared, alone, and desperate, the shifter’s mate had come to Basil as the High Witch of the coven and had been exploited. What Basil should have done was to offer his aid and claim anything back from the council after. What he had done was against our creed to harm none.

“So you ended it? ”

“Yeah. Let’s just say he didn’t take it well.”

“I can imagine.” I smiled bitterly. Basil was a bastard of the highest order. His temper was legendary when he didn’t get his own way.

“No, you really can’t.” He shook his head mournfully. “He won’t let me go, Thyme. It’s why… with you…”

“Why you turned me down.” It wasn’t a question. Nothing would get under Basil’s skin more than being replaced by his little brother.

There was barely a year between us. I was the longed for “girl” who would secure them control of the coven based on my power level and good breeding. Joke’s on them, I’d always been a boy and willingly gave up much of my magic so I could live as my true self. I’d never wanted to rule, just be myself.

“Yeah. Most of the time, it’s just you in my head, but then he messages, or calls.”

“He texts you? He still calls?”

Just the idea of Basil trying to get under Oak’s skin skeeved me out. It had been over a year since they had broken up, if they were even anything solid enough to need that. Oak said he’d ended it. They were done, so why couldn’t Basil get the hint? Wasn’t it enough that Oak was actively working against Basil’s plans for the coven?

“Yeah. That time… when Mori got shot…”

I launched to my feet. “It was you!” I accused .

Oak stood, he swayed in place. “No. He heard the voices of the others in the background. I swear, I didn’t tell him anything.”

“You let everyone believe it was me, or River!”

“River was working with him, though. He just didn’t know to tell him Damon was staying the night. Basil heard River telling me about which rooms they were in.”

It had always bugged me. I’d wondered for months how they knew which room Damon was in.

“I remember. You were distracted. Kept checking your phone. You picked a fight, one of many, and then walked off.”

“Basil kept texting and calling. I was going to tell River which rooms to put them in when I accidentally answered.” Oak looked distraught. “I still blame myself for Mori getting shot. If I’d known he would hear them, I’d have switched my phone off.”

Exhausted, I sat again. “He would have just called River then.”

Oak retook his seat. “Yeah. He would have.” He ran a hand through his hair. “No matter what I do, he still finds a way to me. I’ve changed my number a few times, but he always gets it again. I just want to be free of him.”

“Do you want to be free of me, too? ”

The idea he would made me feel cold inside. Oak was special to me. Knowing what I did now, it made sense all the distance he put between us. He wanted me the same way I wanted him, but the ghost of Basil haunted whatever we could have.

“No. That’s the thing.” Our eyes met and held. “I want to only see you when I look at you. But how can we move past this?”

“I’m not sure that we can.”